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Friday, 14 August 2015

Funerary - 'Starless Aeon' (Album Review)

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 17/07/2015

Label: Sentient Ruin Laboratories

/ Vendetta Records

…unleashing devastating riffs caked under layers of tar-thick distortion. The whole album is cloaked in a heavy fog that envelopes every note in a psychedelic haze that enhances the bleak air of despair evoked by the desperate howling vocals.

‘Starless Aeon’ CS//DD//LP track listing:

01. Coerced Creation (05:17)

02. Atonement (03:48)

03. Beneath The Black Veil (11:29)

04. Starless Aeon (03:11)

05. Depressor (10:18)

The Review:

It is difficult to think of a more aptly titled album than “Starless Aeon”, the debut by Arizona doom mongers Funerary. The five tracks here come together to form an aural black hole, sucking in all light and hope from the world to deliver a truly crushing listening experience.

“Coerced Creation” kicks off proceedings at a pace appropriate to their moniker, unleashing devastating riffs caked under layers of tar-thick distortion. What really draws you in though, is the atmosphere that Funerary manage to create. The whole album is cloaked in a heavy fog that envelopes every note in a psychedelic haze that enhances the bleak air of despair evoked by the desperate howling vocals. There are hints of Yob’s darkest moments and the spaced out doom of Unearthly Trance’s“In The Red”, but Funerary have a vibe that is all their own.

The band dial back the heaviness for the desolate dustbowl feel of instrumental “Atonement”. Even when distortion levels are reduced though, Funerary still maintain a cold air of all-encompassing misery. This track bleeds into monolithic album centrepiece “Beneath the Black Veil”, moving from relative calm to sonic onslaught over the course of 11 minutes, providing a demonstration of everything that makes Funerary a force to be reckoned with.

“Starless Aeon” was initially given a small run release last year but it’s great to see it being reissued and hopefully making its way to a wider audience in 2015. Funerary are already holding their own against the doom heavyweights of the world with this debut and I can only see their power growing with future releases.

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